Wladimir Klitschko (left) is beaten by Tyson Fury for the world heavyweight title: ‘To expect Tyson Fury or other boxers to come out with views and attitudes conducive to the cultured middle classes is ludicrous.’
Photograph: Action Press/Rex Shutterstock

I am quite taken aback by the furore over Tyson Fury, with calls for him to be put in the stocks from all and sundry. Since when were boxers ever role models? The majority are railroaded into the so-called sport from massively disadvantaged backgrounds. I grew up close to some Irish Traveller families where bare-knuckle boxing was encouraged as soon as the boys reached five years old.

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Every Saturday night, crowds of men from our rundown housing estate would get tanked up and go to watch those from an even lower pecking order than themselves inflict pain and humiliation on each other, while the spectators egged them on. I only ever saw it once, and the sight of the blood spraying the wooden floor reminded me of a particularly nasty incident of domestic violence I had previously witnessed, committed by a neighbour on his pregnant wife.

When the police were eventually tipped off about these illegal fights, they shut them down. The organisers then put on dog fights to feed the mania for violent sport that was so prevalent in communities where poverty and hopelessness was the norm, churning out boys who felt their only worth was the ability to instil fear in, and cause injury to, others.

The ultimate aim in a boxing match is to inflict a blow to the head and render the opponent unconscious. Violence is endemic to this sport. Why are we now taking the moral high ground, and sitting in judgment over individual boxers’ attitudes and beliefs, when we barely pay any attention to the oppression and brutality that gets these men into the ring? Many middle-class folk fetishise the sport, and seem to enjoy watching the proles knock hell out of each other. These are some of the same people now up in arms about Fury’s offensive and unsavoury views.

Whether we enjoy watching it or not, boxing exploits working class people, is dangerous, and it celebrates violence and individual competitiveness. While rich businessmen take their colleagues to a big game and enjoy watching the commoners beat the shit out of each other, don’t expect those we exploit in such a way to have been on many equality and diversity training courses.

When world champion boxer Muhammad Ali announced that he aspired to became “a black Henry Kissinger”, and that he only used his boxing skills to improve the lot of other African American men from the ghetto, he became an exception. If we were to judge other boxers by Ali’s aspirations we would be bitterly disappointed. Most boxers play on the bad boy image, and pander to the stereotypical image of rabid thug with a cauliflower brain in order to satisfy the desires of the spectator.

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To expect Tyson Fury or other boxers to come out with views and attitudes conducive to the cultured middle classes is ludicrous. Not because he is of Traveller heritage, or because he is working class. But because he, like other men who have been raised to punch the living daylights out of their sporting opponents in order to earn a living, has been fed a diet of anger and survival instinct. If your job is to knock somebody unconscious, it’s unlikely that they have been raised to think that solving an argument with their fists is wrong. The ethos behind this can also breed dangerous attitudes towards women. When Mike Tyson was accused of rape, for example, he said he was “not guilty of this crime” because his victim had no black eyes or broken ribs.

Making Fury an outcast for his views is hardly going to make a difference. He will still be lauded by those who enjoy this grotesque, sadistic sport, whatever his views on gay people or women. We would be better off asking why boxing was ever classed as entertainment in the first place.